Disclaimer: Naruto is not mine.
Moeagare Toushi
Chapter 9: Down to Earth
It's not a good thing to keep moping like this, Naruto.
And why shouldn't I? I used nearly all of my tricks and didn't do jack shit.
Keep thinking that way and I'll keep this up. I have the time, you don't.
Okay, I'm sorry. It's just that...
...it, in your own language, sucks to lose, doesn't it?
Yes, my lady.
You just drew the short end of the stick that time, child. Maybe this incident will open their eyes and give you something your kind call ninjutsu to learn.
Well, our situation would make it... complicated. Maybe that's why I stuck with martial arts.
It is a good thing that I was able to give you the assist, was it not?
...yes, my lady. I don't know what would have happened if you weren't...
...hush, child. Someone comes.
"So, Naruto - you've awoken at last," declared the Third Hokage as he entered the hospital room. "I must say that you continue to exceed everyone's expectations of you."
"What do you mean, sir?" Naruto asked.
"Well, if it wasn't for your interference, your sensei would have been in worse, and the Uchiha would have been marked."
Oh yeah, Naruto thought. That seven-time loser with the glasses kept referring to "HVT (high value target) to be marked" while signalling his teammates. Something was off with him so I had my suspicions noted down - wait, those ninja went through my clothes!
He huffed with indignation at his treatment. "You're welcome, I guess, sir... but that jumpsuit is customized for me. It's a shame they have to destroy it."
"You don't need to worry about that," the Hokage replied. "As loath as Might Guy was to make something that wasn't his shade of green, he had five dark gray ones made to your specifications."
"That's a relief," Naruto said with a grin.
A minute passed by before the Hokage straightened up in his seat.
"Oh! Your sensei was supposed to give you this," he said as he handed Naruto a scroll. "Chakra paper, control exercises, and a jutsu I'm sure someone of your extraordinary circumstances can put to good use... of course, you'll want to start working on them tomorrow, as I've asked the staff to discharge you then."
"All right, sir," Naruto answered.
"Consider this your time off. Tomorrow, I'm sure you'll be back to your usual grind."
"Again, my thanks to this boon, Hokage-sama," Naruto said, bowing his head towards the old Hokage.
The sight of Naruto looking both frustrated and like he wanted to strangle his wayward student seemed to sadden the Third; by all accounts he put up a wonderful fight but was ultimately subdued by Orochimaru's trademark ninjutsu slinging and snake summons.
Too bad for him, as Naruto stalling the rogue ninja was all Team 7 needed to make a hasty retreat... so while the boy lost the battle, he won the war for Konoha, so to speak.
The Hokage left the convalescing boy to his thoughts, and looked forward to preparing for the inevitable clash with his former prized student.
Meanwhile, as night wore on in the hospital, Uzumaki Naruto looked outside the window to the moonlit night outside.
It was a beautiful night to remember recent events.
"You had no right."
He reeled from the slap, but more from surprise and shock than from pain.
"You had no right to tell him!"
"I'm sorry."
"I came here because I wanted to get away from people who do things behind my back because they think they know better - and you, of all people, go ahead and do something like this!"
He faced her angry eyes with his own.
"You don't need Okazaki-san. Not the way Furukawa-san does."
"Is that what you told Tomoya?"
"I told him what he needed to hear. Do you think Furukawa-san will get over it that quickly or easily if he chose you instead of h-"
Naruto's statement was cut short as he was subjected to a vicious right cross from the silver-haired girl.
He grinned despite his bloody nose, spat out a loose tooth, and continued. "...as I was saying... you know how it is. The strong take from the weak and the weak can't do nothing about it. Isn't that why you... no, we joined the School?"
"It isn't fair..."
"...I know to you it isn't, but even I'm not sure that Okazaki-san's love is enough for Furukawa-san."
"Why do you always have to be so correct?"
He smiled a bloody grin. "Who says I came up with this on my own?"
The boy closed his eyes as he focused, the seal on his stomach lighting up. Sakagami Tomoyo had to take a step back at the power flaring from him.
"That's... that's... that's not supposed to be possible..." she said, fear creeping into her voice. "I thought... that time with those men... that was your power..."
"No," Naruto replied, opening his eyes once more, revealing that his blue eyes had now turned red... slitted. "Not just mine."
Tomoyo could have sworn she saw a woman's shadow behind the boy, but dismissed it as a trick of the light.
"I've been shown so many things," Naruto added, his voice beginning to thicken, "and I don't want you or your friends to be mixed up in all of it... it never ends well. It never does."
He wept. Oh, if only Tomoyo could see that every step forward carried with it the risk of something... catastrophic.
The day after that, she politely (hah!) kept her distance, and Uzumaki Naruto, for the very first time in his life, felt his heart break for his senpai in the School.
Away from his contemporaries, sensei, medic-nin and others, Uzumaki Naruto cried himself to sleep over choosing the lesser evil.
The very next day, he was released from the hospital to begin training anew.
After stopping by his place for a shower, a change to his training clothes and breakfast, he began the walk towards his training ground. And during the trip, he turned his voice inward...
Kyuubi.
Yes?
...I'd like to apologize.
...what would you want to apologize about? She didn't know your burden. Next to no one here knows. They all think it's part of your martial arts training.
...In a long and roundabout way, yes it is. Still, I want to apologize. Back then with Tomoyo-senpai and her friends. I jumped the gun.
Because you saw that the only way she and that Okazaki fellow would end was in betrayal, heartbreak and death, wasn't it?
When I remember seeing what happens with Okazaki-san and Furukawa-san, that seemed more like a story.
A story, child?
You know... a story. Where they had to fight for their own happy ending.
Will I have my own happy ending, I wonder?
Kyuubi... if I'll find your happy ending by fighting for my own... then that's enough for me.
...thank you. Apology accepted. I've begun modifying your chakra coils to use the lower-level ninjutsu and control techniques.
You're welcome.
A sultry laugh faded into silence as Naruto reached the training ground. After taking a seat on the grass Naruto opened the scrolls to see manuals on leaf floating, tree walking, water walking, and a strange square of paper that had "Channel some chakra through me!" written on it.
With nothing to lose, Naruto did... and yelped as the square of paper was suddenly sliced by an invisible hand into confetti.
As the pieces fluttered onto the opened scroll, another bunch of scrolls opened up, this time, ones with green and marked with the symbol of Wind.
After scanning the scrolls Naruto turned to the last one.
Hmm, this is strange... Naruto thought. "Kage Bunshin no Jutsu", "chakra-intensive", "memory retention"... this could work.
He put his hands into the seals, molded some chakra and bellowed out the name... and grinned.
Facing him was a pair of identical copies of himself.
"Sweet," the original said.
"You could use more chakra for more of us," a clone said.
"Yep, the more, the merrier," the other clone said.
"I don't think so, kids," the original replied. "I'll be taking this slow so you guys better earn your keep."
"But reading's so... so boring!" one clone complained.
"I thought we'd be sparring," the other clone added.
"Suck it up," the original replied. "Otherwise, you guys go poof. Now let's get going. I want to at least get Wind molding and tree-walking done by day's end."
The two clones nodded and picked up their respective scrolls.
That snakey bastard showed me just how far I need to go... Naruto told himself. Next time we meet I'm chopping off his scaly head.
The month passed uneventfully for Naruto (except for his exceptional strides he took when training, but is that anything new?), with the only light in the ennui his visit to Anko-sensei in the hospital.
"Sorry I couldn't oversee your training, kiddo," she said as the medics continued their scanning of her chakra coils.
"It's no problem, sensei," Naruto replied. "I've made a few advances myself."
"I was going to give you a scroll that had a useful jutsu for you, given your... problem..."
"Kage Bunshin?" Naruto asked. "Thanks, but the Hokage already gave it to me, along with enough stuff to train for up until the Chunin Exam finals."
"Speaking of the finals," Anko said, "You'd do well to keep an eye out. One of the finalists from Sunagakure started some drama here. Nearly killed that genin he maimed if not for his sensei showing up."
"Who was it?"
"Sai. You know, the ink-user, wears black."
"Ah, the goffik fellow."
"It's not him you should worry about. The redhead is dangerous. Make sure to tell the finalists so."
"Is that a mission, sensei?"
"No... consider it a favor to me."
"As you wish."
How her student had managed to keep a straight face while being subjected to a full view of her bare back was something Anko couldn't wrap her finger around, even after she was released from the hospital with a full week to spare before the Chunin Exam finals.
Thankfully, Naruto didn't run into Orochimaru when that invasion came.
Unfortunately, for a large contingent of Sunagakure and Otogakure ninja, they had to run into him.
After he literally plowed through a bunch of them, one particularly loud and cocky Oto-nin decided to run his mouth.
"Who cares how strong this bastard is? There's only one of him and a lot of us. Let's finish him!"
He had to do that too late as the blonde kid put his hands in a cross seal and then deliver a patented School of the Undefeated of the East ass-whooping... several hundred times over.
She found him at the ramen stand.
"Hey."
"Hello, sensei."
Mitarashi Anko took a seat, pointed at the Shrimp Ramen, signed for one bowl, and turned to her student.
"The Hokage insisted on this, you know."
"Sure, he did," Naruto said. "Look what happened."
"We only lost 5% of our active forces, sent them packing... and a lot of it was due to your intervention, kid. You should be proud."
"Why'd he do it?"
She sighed. "That m-Orochimaru was, once upon a time, his student."
He turned his head toward her, showing eyes that were red from crying. "Really?"
"I'm sure that he also did it to make sure that no one would be caught in the crossfire. That bastard was always so full of himself. Hokage-sama played to his vanity easily."
Naruto chuckled.
"Anyway, they'll be done selecting a new Hokage in awhile. I wonder who'll it be?"
"Hope whoever it is doesn't change my contract," Naruto said. "Until I know my heritage... I'll do what I can here."
"That's the spirit!"
The very next day, both Mitarashi Anko and her "student" Uzumaki Naruto were called to the Hokage's Tower...
...and were totally blindsided as they were nearly beaned in the face by a jonin and chunin vest, respectively.
"Kakashi was incapacitated during the invasion, you'll handle Team 7 for the meantime," an old man who Naruto guessed was a colleague of the late Hokage-sama said.
"What about me?" Naruto asked.
"You'll be coming with me, chunin," a white-haired ninja with the most conspicuous red-and-gray outfit - ever - told him. "The council took a vote to elect the next Hokage and selected my contemporary Senju Tsunade. I've been tasked to bring her back here."
"All right, sir... may I know who I'll be escorting?" Naruto asked.
"You can call me Jiraiya. Now, let's be off."
Chapter 9 - End
a/n: Yeah, we'll see a retrieval arc and after that, the fur is really going to fly.